Sustainability Report 2026
At Crocus, we believe gardening sustains us, and that we have a responsibility to give back to the earth we love. Guided by this belief, we are pleased to present our fifth Sustainability Report. In this edition, we share the progress made during 2025, alongside our goals for 2026. We hope this report offers insight into life at the Crocus nursery and the steps we are taking to reduce our impact while growing responsibly.
PROGRESS WE MADE IN 2025
OUR APPROACH TO GROWING
The standards we’ve grown by for many years
We’re committed to outstanding plant health
Our commitment to producing excellent plants for our customers means we take great care over the way we grow. For the last three years we have been awarded the Plant Healthy accreditation, the only online gardening brand to be so. This prestigious, DEFRA-supported accreditation is not easily earned; it is awarded only to growers who undergo extensive scrutiny over many months by an independent assessment team and can demonstrate exceptional standards of plant health and biosecurity.
Re-using rainwater to water our plants
With so many plants to water, we are unsurprisingly very water conscious. Our nursery is supported by an on-site reservoir we built which can hold up to 7 million litres. Runoff rainwater from nursery buildings is captured and channelled through a pipe network into our reservoir. As a result, all plants grown outdoors are irrigated using collected rainwater rather than mains supply.
Recycling our own compost and waste
Reusing and recycling sit at the heart of day to day work on our nursery. Green waste from growing is composted on site in our industrial bays and returned to the nursery for landscaping and plant care, with 80 tonnes reused every year. Wood waste fuels our biomass boilers, cardboard is reused for plant protection, and in 2025 we recycled 90% of all recyclable waste through trusted partners.
What’s next for our nursery
85% of our plants to be grown in the UK
Where we can’t grow plants in our propagation unit, we work with trusted nurseries who start plants off and then we continue to grow them at our nursery. To reduce plant miles, we prioritise UK suppliers wherever possible. For 2026, our goal is that 85% of our plants are UK grown, including houseplants, bulbs, and seeds.
Removing peat from our supply chain by 2026
Whilst we have done a lot of work to create our own peat free mix and work with UK peat free plug suppliers, unfortunately some plugs sourced from our European suppliers do contain a very small amount of peat. We are actively trialing new methods on the nursery to ensure we can grow these ranges ourselves. For plants from our suppliers, our policy is to always favour a peat free supplier where possible and reasonable to do so. Ultimately, our aim is to be peat free for ‘garden ready’ plants by 2026, as in line with the UK’s government’s agenda.
Removing plastic from our packaging
All of our plants are hand picked by our nursery team and packed in our warehouse using cardboard and paper packaging. Aside from blister packs, which are made from recycled plastic, we don’t use plastic at all for the delivery of your plants. We are now taking this approach to our product packaging and we hope to be plastic free for all our Crocus Collection packaging in the future. In the meantime, we are also working closely with suppliers to reduce plastic packaging and are encouraged to see a growing shift across the industry towards more sustainable alternatives.
